Tonight in Unpacks: The Jaguars and the city of Jacksonville agreed late Tuesday to a $1.4 billion framework for renovating EverBank Stadium, reports SBJ’s Bret McCormick, with the Jags kicking in $675 million and extending their lease for 30 years.
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Jaguars, Jacksonville reach $1.4 billion deal for EverBank Stadium renovation
The Jacksonville Jaguars and city of Jacksonville unveiled the framework of a deal at Tuesday evening’s city council meeting that would allocate $1.4B to renovate the 29-year-old, city-owned EverBank Stadium. The deal would extend the Jaguars’ lease 30 years and include a non-relocation stipulation, and it would see the city spend $775M -- $625M for the renovation and $150M for deferred maintenance paid upfront to the project -- while the Jaguars would kick in $625M. The team will not be selling permanent seat licenses, which NFL teams sometimes use to fund stadium projects.
Jacksonville City Council President Ronald Salem said he is hopeful that the council’s review of the deal framework will begin in early June. The team and city want to put the stadium plan before the NFL owners at their October meeting; 75% of NFL owners’ approval would be needed for the project to commence. The stadium would be renovated over four years, beginning in early 2025, and the Jaguars would only need to play one season away from the venue before it opened in 2028.
“A lot of people feel that the decision is ‘we do the Jaguars’ lease, and we spend $600M or $700M dollars,’ or ‘we don’t do the lease, and we spend no money,’” said Mike Weinstein , who negotiated with the Jags on the city’s behalf. “The facility is 30 years old; it’s been neglected. If you want the Florida-Georgia game, you can’t just let it sit. If we want to use it, we have to continue to invest in it, and we’re behind in that investment.”
In addition to significant changes to the stadium’s façade, the renovation would put an ETFE-like roof (akin to the coverings at SoFi Stadium, Allegiant Stadium and the Titans’ New Nissan Stadium) over the building, protecting fans from the elements and lowering temperatures within the seating bowl by 15 degrees in some cases, according to Jags President Mark Lamping . The project would produce a 60% increase in escalators and double the number of elevators, adding 110,000 square feet to the existing building. It’d also have a larger capacity so that costly temporary seating wouldn’t need to be added each year for the Florida-Georgia game. The renovation is being designed by HOK; the firm’s most recent NFL stadium designs were Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium renovation. An AECOM Hunt/Barton Malow joint venture is handling construction.
Money matters
The new lease would shift much more of the financial burden to the stadium’s primary user, the Jaguars. The team would cover 19.2% of the stadium’s annual operating utility expenses (it pays none right now), and the city and the Jaguars would partner on all non-NFL events (excluding the Gator Bowl and Florida-Georgia football games), with profits from those events going back into the stadium’s upkeep and capital projects. The two sides predicted those profits could cover 28% of the annual operating and utility expenses. The city currently pays all gameday expenses, but the new lease would shift 80% of those costs to Jags. Under the new lease, the Jags would maintain the right to play one home game each year in London, in addition to another international game if scheduled by the NFL.Under the new agreement, the city and the Jags would decide maintenance and other budgets together, a major but necessary change, said Weinstein, to a better job of stadium upkeep. And if the Jags decide to hire an outside venue management company, like ASM Global (which currently operates the stadium), both the city and the NFL team must agree. Additionally, the Jaguars upped their community benefits agreement promise to $100M, but that is being matched by the city and will kickstart dormant park projects in the downtown area, as well as work force development, affordable housing, and efforts to address homelessness in the Out East neighborhood near the stadium.